Capture condition for endo-atmospheric interceptors steered by ALCS and ARCS

This contribution deals with capture condition for interceptor missiles steered by aero-lift control system (ALCS) and attitude reaction-jet control system (ARCS). With the guidance law derived from bounded differential game formulation, existence condition of capture zone is studied for the case that the interceptor has advantage on maneuverability and disadvantage on agility. For the existence of the open capture zone, ARCS can only close after the engagement terminates. Moreover, ARCS also needs to contribute to maneuverability over the minimum required value. More fuel will be required if ARCS increases its contribution to maneuverability. The minimum required fuel occurs at the tangent point of two curves: the curve of critical parameters and a candidate constraint curve, which is also true even for the complex propellant constrain. The validity of these results is also demonstrated by simulations.